Bills to curtail transgender people's access to public restrooms are pending in a dozen states, but even in conservative bastions such as Texas and Arkansas they may be doomed by high-powered opposition.

The bills took on a new significance this week following the decision by President Donald Trump's administration to revoke an Obama-era directive instructing public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms of their chosen gender. Conservative leaders hailed assertions by Trump appointees that the issue was best handled by the states.

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Here are some important events in the history of transgender rights in the United States:

1952: Christine Jorgensen completes sex-reassignment surgery in Denmark; she was the first American known for undergoing such a transition.

1969: Transgender people are in the forefront of the Stonewall Inn riots in New York City, which helped spark the U.S. gay-rights movement.

1977: The New York Supreme Court rules in favor of transgender physician/athlete Renee Richards in her bid to play pro tennis as a woman.

1993: Transgender man Brandon Teena is raped and murdered in Nebraska; his story is later made into the film "Boys Don't Cry." Minnesota becomes the first state to ban anti-transgender discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.

1999: Observance of the first international Day or Remembrance, an annual event honoring victims of anti-transgender violence.

2008: Isis King becomes first transgender model featured in the reality TV show "America's Next Top Model."

2009: President Obama signs a federal hate-crimes law that covers crimes motivated by anti-transgender bias.

2010: In response to a lawsuit, players of the Ladies Professional Golf Association vote to allow transgender players to compete on tour.

2012: Miss Universe opens its competition to transgender contestants. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules that discrimination based on transgender status is sex discrimination in violation of the Civil Rights Act.

2013: The American Psychiatric Association updates its diagnostic manual to stipulate that being transgender is no longer considered a mental disorder.

2014: Actress Laverne Cox becomes first transgender person featured on the cover of Time magazine. Maine's highest court rules that a transgender fifth-grader should have been allowed to use the girls' bathroom at her school.

2015: Caitlyn Jenner completes her gender transition, appears on the cover of Vanity Fair. Voters in Houston defeat an ordinance that would have extended nondiscrimination protections to transgender people.

2016: The U.S. military lifts its ban on transgender service members. The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear a Virginia case involving Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy seeking the right to use the boys' restroom at his high school. The Obama administration advises public schools that transgender students should be allowed to use restrooms and locker rooms of their choice.

2017: The Trump administration revokes the Obama-era directive, saying policies for transgender students' bathroom access should be set at the state and local level.